


Another Chance

by Phalloidin



Category: 91 Days (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst with a surprise, Character Death, M/M, Suicide, i had to write this because oh wow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:29:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29740149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phalloidin/pseuds/Phalloidin
Summary: It could have been different, maybe they could have been more.
Relationships: Angelo Lagusa | Avilio Bruno/Nero Vanetti
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Another Chance

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time ever posting any kind of fanfic ever and it’s really just a drabble so please forgive me if the writing isn’t exactly Pulitzer Prize worthy, I just wanted to write something about these two because this anime ruined me lmao
> 
> It’s not all doom and gloom I hope you enjoy it!

Avilio walks slowly across the sand, Nero stops behind him. The older man slowly raises his revolver and pulls back the hammer, his eyes are focused on the young man walking the other direction, in front of the barrel. 

Seconds pass. But no shot is heard.

The gun drops to Nero’s side. “Avilio..” Nero says. But he wasn’t loud enough. The volume of the ocean swallows the name. Avilio continues to walk aimlessly along the shoreline, the water gently lapping against his now soaked shoes.

“AVILIO!” Nero shouts. He runs towards the younger man. Frantic, not wanting to let go. How could he? After everything they’ve been through? Avilio stops in his tracks, but he doesn’t turn around. His body vibrates with a mix of grief, anger, and despair hearing his name being called from the one person he failed to destroy.

_Why can’t you pull the trigger? Why can’t you just end my misery? Why are you torturing me like this?_

Nero stops a few feet before the smaller body, his eyes red and watering. “I can’t do it Avilio. I can’t kill you. You’re all I have left.” Nero’s voice comes out hoarse, grating against Avilio’s eardrums. “I...I love you.”

Avilio turns slowly. His face is rather neutral, indecipherable. But his eyes are showing a different story to the older man. There’s no fire there, no spark; there isn’t even a person in there anymore. A husk of what was, and what could have been. But his emotionless words sting all the same.  
  
“We can’t be together. It was never meant to be. You took it all from me. I have nothing left. I have nothing to give you.”  
_  
Maybe things could have been different. Maybe we could have been something more._

Nero clenches his teeth. His body begins to tremble and he feels like screaming. He wants to grab Avilio by the shoulders and yell in his face that they could try. That they could _somehow_ salvage this, they could start anew with each other. Forget every fucked up thing that happened and just live for the two of them. But he doesn’t have the energy anymore. It’s like his willpower, his pride, and his strength all just dissipated into the air, joining the salty haze surrounding them. He’s so exhausted; drained from the pain and grief that’s crushing his soul.

“I just want one last thing.”

  
Nero walks up to the younger man, who shows no reaction. He’s so close their noses almost touch; but still no movement, no harsh push to distance them, no yelling at him to go away, nothing at all. Tears are streaming down Nero’s face, dripping all over his shirt. He takes his revolver and pushes the handle gently to the younger man’s chest, taking his frail hand and placing it onto the gun. 

“Please... do it. Just give me this. I’m begging you.”  
  
_Everything I’ve lived for has been ripped away from me. I can’t bear to be alone._

  
Nero guides Avilio’s finger to the trigger, his chest aligned with the barrel. Their tired, broken eyes are locked. Nothing but the sounds of the ocean and the calls of seagulls can be heard. But it’s almost as if the air changes within a mere second. What flashes across Avilio’s face in that second, Nero isn’t quite sure of. Perhaps it was pity. Or maybe, just maybe, it was something that resembled mercy. An emotion that would only be shown for something, _someone_ you cherished.

A loud bang thunders across the beach.

Nero smiles at the last happy moment of his life, finally he feels some kind of relief. Avilio’s face contorts to what can only be described as shock, eyes wide and mouth agape. Shock at what he’s done. What he just now did to only person who told him that living was worth it. The only person still left in this world that was still showing him love and compassion, even though he took everything away from this person for the sake of revenge. Revenge that he realized too late that he didn’t even want.

But Nero still wanted to be by his side. And maybe he still wanted to be by Nero’s side too.

Perhaps if Avilio just gave him a chance. It could have been different. It could have been more.

A red flower blossoms across Nero’s white, tear stained shirt. It’s petals spreading larger throughout with each passing second. His blue eyes start to glaze over. He collapses to his knees. “Th-thank you.” Blood sputters from his mouth. “Avilio.. th..”

Avilio ducks down and grabs him by the shoulders before his body hits the ground. He puts pressure on the wound with one hand, holding Nero by his back with the other; but the bleeding doesn’t stop. Nero moves a hand over his, clutching it weakly. His breathing is shallow.

Much to Avilio’s own surprise, tears start to fill his eyes.

“Nero... why did it have to be like this? Why couldn’t you have just fucking killed me?” He cries out.

Nero let’s go of Avilio, raising his hand with the last of his life force to brush it against Avilio’s red, tear stained cheek. His smile unwavering. Their eyes meet again, but the light in his bright blue eyes fades away. One last ragged breath escapes his lips, and his face relaxes. His arm falls to the ground; and his neck goes limp.

It feels as though time itself has stopped everywhere else except for on that small spot on the shoreline where the young man is kneeling over the other for what feels like hours, weeping. Avilio’s body feels like stone. He can’t stop staring at his dead companion.  
  
He realized too late that he didn’t want to hurt him. He finally realized much too late that he wanted to know what it was like to love him. 

If they had another chance, maybe they could have been more.

  
The tide is touching them both now. The blood staining the sand is being cleansed away. Avilio can no longer cry. He gently places the older man’s body down onto the sand, and closes his deep blue eyes with unstable fingers. Avilio stands, turns to the ocean, and begins to walk. 

And walk. And walk until the water engulfs his entire being.  
  
Nero’s lifeless body is eventually swept into the vast waters too. The tide cradling him into the void; the depths claiming what’s left of him.

The surface never breaks, and neither are ever seen again.

The waves continue to crash, the seagulls continue to cry out.

Nero Vanetti and Avilio Bruno are no more.

* * *

Nero awakens in his bed with a gasp, shaking and sweating profusely through his tank top. He shoots up and scans his surroundings. It’s his flat in Chicago, city lights shining through the shutters of the large window on the left side of the room. It’s some time very early in the morning. He tries to calm his breathing and the body beside him stirs.  
“Nero, what’s wrong?” A sleepy voice asks.

Nero swallows hard. “I...had a bad dream. But it felt like it was real.” 

A thin, pale body with black hair rises from the covers. Golden hazel eyes halfway open look towards the older man. “Was it really that scary? You’ve never freaked out about a dream before.” The body says.  
  
Nero wipes his face. A wet film starts blurring his vision. “It... was about us. We were on a beach, and you did something terrible to me. No, we did something terrible to each other. I don’t even remember what it was but I remember feeling so angry and sad. I was so incredibly angry at you for what you did that I was going to shoot you. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t hurt you. So I told you to shoot me.” Nero takes off his tank top and points to a small red splotch on his abdomen. “And you did. You shot me right here on my birthmark because I told you to. Because I loved you so much, but you couldn’t love me back. It felt so fucking real, Angelo. I felt you. I felt the bullet rip through my chest. I could smell the salt in the air. I could hear the seagulls and the ocean so clearly, like we were really there. Fuck, Angelo I...” He closes his eyes, a few tears begin to fall from his face.

Angelo cups Nero’s face and wipes away the tears on his cheeks. “Nero...please stop crying.” Nero looks down to Angelo’s face, hoping that his gentle, caring expression will bring him comfort.

He’s met with a deadpan face. Very typical in an almost comical way. Nero forgets that this kind of thing isn’t Angelo’s strong suit.

“I can’t even shoot you Nero, I don’t own a gun and I don’t know how to use one. It was just a dream. You’re okay.”

Nero looks at him in disbelief, but a smile forms on the younger man’s face as Nero starts to pout. The slight cruel streak in him thinks it’s quite cute when Nero is a little upset.  
“Gee, thanks Angelo, you’re very reassuring. Do you even know how to comfort a lover?”

Angelo shrugs and turns his gaze to the alarm clock on Nero’s side of the bed. “Ahh, I’m new to this stuff you know. Is there a book I could I consult about first time lovers that aren’t sure how to tell their boyfriend that they just had a bad dream and that they will be okay at 4 in the morning?”

Nero can’t help but smile a little too, and chuckles. The dream halfway forgotten. The hurt he felt seems to melt away. “Yea you should, hell, it’s the 21st century, I’m pretty sure they have a book called romance for dummies!”

Angelo wraps an arm around Nero, places a gentle kiss on his cheek and brings him close to his body, laughing quietly and pulling the covers over them. Nero’s smile widens, accepting Angelo’s own way of comforting him.

“I’ll be sure to pick that book up after my opening shift at the bar later. I don’t even know why Corteo insisted we have Sunday brunch every other week.”

“Maybe he’s really in tune with your love for pancakes drowned in syrup.”

“Mmm. Maybe. But let’s go back to sleep now. I’m sorry about your dream.” Angelo reaches to the birthmark on Nero’s body, placing his hand gently onto it. “I would never do that to you. Not in this lifetime.”

“...Hey Angelo?”

“Yea?”

“I love you. Sleep well.”

“I love you too, Nero. Sleep well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise! It’s a reincarnation fic! I just really felt like their bond was so strong that maybe they deserved another chance to get things right because they were really doomed from the start, but I know they loved each other so much it hurt. ;-;  
> I changed Nero up a little because I feel like he wouldn’t be “I’m a big strong man I can handle anything” in that moment on the beach, I had to break him down a little. (I’m so sorry)  
> Maybe I’ll delve more into something fluffy about their reincarnated lives sometime (with better writing lmao!) I hope they aren’t too OOC!!


End file.
